five minutes with
Five minutes with Rob Cooper Nicole Slater meets the co-founder of Enoteca Group this Father’s Day Local business owner and father of two, Rob Cooper is well-known around town and can frequently be found in his restaurants, The Picture House and The Conservatory. Although he has enjoyed life as a restaurateur for the past 16 years, Cooper’s journey to Hong Kong was quite the rollercoaster. “I left a good advertising job in London in 1991 with a six month round the world Trailfinders ticket. I promised my dad I’d be back in time for Father’s Day. He gave me a
hundred quid and I went. That was 30 years ago,” says Cooper. He spent a year backpacking around Asia and two years in Australia and New Zealand working casual jobs including waiting tables, selling carpets and computers, before moving to Hong Kong in 1994. “I headed to a cheap dorm in the Chung King Mansions. Within 24 hours I was dressed in a loud red frilly Spanish shirt and black trousers and was hired as a waiter at Dali’s Tapas Bar in Wan Chai for
$5,000 per month.” That was when he met his wife-to-be, Kim Minards. “Life was a whirlwind of cheap shared apartments, parties and going home when the sun rose. Kids were the last thing on my mind.” The couple wed in 2004 and decided to open their own restaurant group, Enoteca in 2005. After hitting 40, Cooper and Minards believed it was time to expand the family. “We decided to have kids and were rubbish at making our own. So we chose to adopt. I grew up with adopted aunts and cousins and it seemed the natural alternative route to the family for us.” The couple signed up with the Hong Kong Welfare Department and six months later became the proud parents of Jack. “There’s no build up of prenatal preparation so it was a beautifully surreal nervous moment for both of us,” he says. The family left Hong Kong Island and moved to Clearwater Bay shortly after, “it was the best thing we could have done. Green space, forest rails, nearby beaches - Sai Kung was his playground.” In 2011 the couple welcomed their daughter Summer and the family went from strength to strength opening an array of new restaurants across the city. “For years we didn’t have a good work-life balance. It certainly worked out for us but maybe at the expense of maximising quality time with the kids when they were both very little. Every night we worked, came home at 2am and slept during the day,” says Cooper. With strong management teams in place, the couple has been able to enjoy more time at home together, “we work a social life with crowds, so home downtime is the best. Quality time is not just a once a week beach or once a month Disney trip, it’s the cuddles, nerf gun wars (dad has to lose) and pillow fights that are fun for the soul.” Now aged 13 and 10, Jack and Summer are coming into their own and will hopefully take on the reins of the Enoteca Group, “Summer has a passion for food and is naturally caring and sociable. Jack might end up having to manage the money and legal aspects for her though so maybe commercial law school first.” But until then Cooper is making the most of family time and advises fellow fathers: “don’t blink …they grow up so fast. Be with them as much as you can.”
Tell us a dad joke Why can’t you hear a pterodactyl go to the bathroom? Because the pee is silent SAI KUNG | 13
